The 2011 Award for Outstanding Contributions in Science and Technology Ceromony. (From left) Vice Premier Chen Chun (陳沖), Associate Researcher Fu-Pei Hsiao(蕭輔沛), Professor Shyh-Jiann Hwang(黃世建), Researcher Lap-Loi Chung(鍾立來), and Researcher Wen-Yu Chien(簡文郁).A working team of the NARL’s National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), led by Prof. Shyh-Jiann Hwang, won the 2011 Award for Outstanding Contributions in Science and Technology conferred by the Executive Yuan for its contributions in seismic performance analysis, aseismatic strengthening and seismic retrofitting of school buildings in Taiwan. This annual award is given to scientists who have made widely recognized contributions to the society. For the 2011, the four were awarded among 40 entries.
Taiwan’s elementary and secondary school buildings constructed before 1999, the year that the seismic design code was first imposed, tend to be weak in structural design due to the demands for lighting and air circulation, and are thus vulnerable to earthquakes. To retrofit these buildings for seismic safety, the Ministry of Education (MOE) is facing a great challenge of the enormous number of school buildings of this kind along with limited budget and time constraints for the retrofitting task. To overcome the challenge, the NARL-NCREE’s working team has developed a set of cost effective techniques for detailed evaluation and retrofitting design of the school buildings.
In the work, the procedure for seismic upgrading involved simple survey, preliminary assessment, detailed evaluation, retrofit design, and reinforcement construction. Each step of the procedure was subject to discernible methods of assessment and rigorous reviews by the scientists and professional engineers to ensure the appropriate selection and reconstruction of the school buildings for increasing earthquake resistance. The said procedure had saved the need of reinforcement construction or demolition for reconstruction in many school buildings.
Through the simple survey, preliminary assessment, detailed evaluation, the information of school buildings such as original design drawings, buildings’ age, earthquake damage records, past seismic resistance evaluation records, past retrofit costs, etc. was collected. ba
In addition to the above, the NARL-NCREE’s working team has developed a technical handbook on aseismatic evaluation and reinforcement method of school buildings, conducted a series of training workshops for other professionals to leverage the team’s achievements in reinforcement technology, and arranged on-site visits of retrofitting processes for school administrators and teachers to accustom with earthquake emergency measures. In partnership with the MOE, the working team has reinforced more than 1,900 school buildings in the past three years. This ensures the safety of more than 1.51 million students and teachers, and saves the government vast sums of money. Indeed it is an inspired feat of undertaking.
